Danger, Violence, Tragedy

“This is our worst nightmare.” Those were the words of Fernando Ochoa, the LAPD Senior Lead Officer for Eagle Rock, at a recent briefing before the Eagle Rock Chamber of Commerce. He was referring to the shoot-out on July 21 between police and an attempted-murder suspect at the Silver Lake Trader Joe’s and the announcement by LAPD that the woman killed in that confrontation had been shot by an LAPD officer.

The violence and tragedy in Silver Lake overshadowed the police action a few days earlier, on the afternoon of July 19, when LADP, with guns drawn in the parking lot at Sprouts in Eagle Rock, captured two robbery suspects. While no shots were fired in Eagle Rock, there are similarities between the two confrontations. Both involved police pursuing a suspect or suspects from one neighborhood into another and both culminated at busy grocery stores in the middle of the day. In both instances, the police arrested the suspect(s) at the scenes and recovered their firearms.

Our corner of L.A. is safer than many other places in this and other cities, but no place is immune.